This is just another example of conflating things that are not alike. One of these things is not like the others…
Colin Day
With all due respect to Ms. Forstater, you can change pronouns, at least in your own use of them. I might not play along. Also, she lacks an enforcement mechanism.
iknklast
Did she say you can’t change pronouns? Or did she say you can’t change sex? Or both?
Who knows? I don’t particularly trust Billy Bragg to quote her accurately.
She is right though in some ways. It’s not physically impossible to refer to a man as “she” of course, but it’s not workable to just “change” anyone’s pronouns by fiat. You can start calling trees freds if you want but no one will understand you.
Papito
“You can’t say gay” seems to be a point of horseshoe convergence between the far right and the far left. They both want to abolish mention of same-sex attraction. Evangelicals on both wings agree. The far right does it by firing schoolteachers, and the far left does it by beating up old gay men at parades.
Skeletor
If there’s a pattern, the last item would be “you can’t discuss someone changing pronouns”. The pro-trans side is the one explicitly trying to shut down discussion (in disingenuous ways like “my existence is not up for debate!”).
Papito
A more correct pattern would be:
University of Idaho – “You can’t discuss abortion”
Ron DeSantis – “You can’t say gay”
Transwomen – “You can’t say I’m a man”
Maya Forstater was illegally fired in an attempt to prevent her from speaking as she saw fit. The prevention of free speech was on the side of the trans rights activists, applied against her gender critical views. Also, Billy Bragg wouldn’t know intellectual consistency if it bit him in the ass.
Comments
7 responses to “A pattern too many”
This is just another example of conflating things that are not alike. One of these things is not like the others…
With all due respect to Ms. Forstater, you can change pronouns, at least in your own use of them. I might not play along. Also, she lacks an enforcement mechanism.
Did she say you can’t change pronouns? Or did she say you can’t change sex? Or both?
Who knows? I don’t particularly trust Billy Bragg to quote her accurately.
She is right though in some ways. It’s not physically impossible to refer to a man as “she” of course, but it’s not workable to just “change” anyone’s pronouns by fiat. You can start calling trees freds if you want but no one will understand you.
“You can’t say gay” seems to be a point of horseshoe convergence between the far right and the far left. They both want to abolish mention of same-sex attraction. Evangelicals on both wings agree. The far right does it by firing schoolteachers, and the far left does it by beating up old gay men at parades.
If there’s a pattern, the last item would be “you can’t discuss someone changing pronouns”. The pro-trans side is the one explicitly trying to shut down discussion (in disingenuous ways like “my existence is not up for debate!”).
A more correct pattern would be:
Maya Forstater was illegally fired in an attempt to prevent her from speaking as she saw fit. The prevention of free speech was on the side of the trans rights activists, applied against her gender critical views. Also, Billy Bragg wouldn’t know intellectual consistency if it bit him in the ass.